played in the fields.

Did you ever think, as you watched the great sun going down behind the
crimson clouds, that there was a day, long, long ago, when that sun, in all
its glory, set for the first time?

I daresay you never thought of the beginning of the sun, or of the first
time that it set, but were just pleased to see the sky so red and glowing,
and sorry when the beautiful sunset colours faded and the clouds became
cold and grey.

Or perhaps, as you have shaded your eyes from his noonday splendour, you
may have remembered that it was God in heaven who made that wonderful sun
to light up the sky, and that he has been shining down upon this earth ever
since; but did you ever stop to ask such a question as this--

How long has that great sun, which is now above my head, been shining in
the sky? Or, again, as he passed in glory out of sight, How many beautiful
sunsets have there been since he first began to "rule the day" and to rise
in the east and set in the west?

Ah! so long a time that no thought of ours could measure it; so many
sunsets that we could never count them. All we can know about it is that
there was a time, long, long ago, when the sun first set and a time when he
rose upon the earth, which was then so beautiful--fresh from the hand of
God.

This world of ours is a very old world, but there was a time when all was
new; not only the sun and moon, but all that you see around you had a
beginning--a birthday. There was a time when no such things were, and there